By Emily Riley

With the Maryland gubernatorial election just a few weeks away, Democratic nominee Ben Jealous came to College Park on Oct. 10 to rally the crowd with Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ, at a rally at Cornerstone Grill and Loft.

Over 100 UMD students, faculty and other members of the community stood shoulder to shoulder — eager to hear from Booker and Jealous, who is challenging incumbent Gov. Larry Hogan in the Nov. 6 election.

“Events like this give people a perspective on what they’re voting for and help them to realize what they’re most passionate about and then vote for that appropriate candidate,” senior public health major Julia Wagner said. “I’m from New Jersey, and this made me wish I was registered to vote here.”

The event gave students and community members the opportunity to get involved in the political process and have their voices heard.

“Everyone has that right to hear the people they believe in, but everyone also has that right to stand outside and hold a sign that they disagree with the beliefs of the people,” said Sydney Poretsky, president of the UMD College Democrats and senior communications and Spanish literature major.

“As long as everything stays civil there’s a lot of ways you can vocalize your dissent. We are lucky to live in a country and be at a school where we have a rich history of students participating in really awesome historical movements.”

Some of Jealous’s policy platforms include increasing funding for schools, allowing healthcare to be accessible for all people, and making Maryland a better state for everyone.

“We can take control of our state,” Jealous said. “We can flip the switch and make our state the model…we will be the party that protects civil rights.”

Jealous also hopes to address the student debt crisis.

“We will give millennials and everyone else who wants an education right now the same deal that the baby boomers got,” he said.

Jealous and Booker also stressed the importance of college-age voters turning out in this year’s election.

“You guys, you are it for us. You are the future, you are the present, you are everything. We need you to vote,” said Susan Turnbull, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor.

Campus organizations have also been encouraging students to go to the polls this year. MaryPIRG, for example, is a non-profit, non-partisan, student advocacy organization that evaluates major student concerns and works to fix them.

“Last midterm, only about 15 percent of UMD students were registered and voted,” said junior government and politics and philosophy major Aharon Logue, who is the vice president of internal affairs for MaryPIRG. “That means that when senators and representatives made decisions to cut funding to help students afford to pay for college, they weren’t forced to hear from the people who were impacted.”

While students may choose to remain apathetic about voting, Logue takes a different approach.

“You don’t have to, but you get to vote, Logue said. “You get to participate and build the nation you want for yourself and the people you love. And that’s an incredible thing.”

Booker made a similar point, saying that “every single one of us can make a difference” — challenging the notion that one individual’s vote has no real impact on the outcome of an election.

“It’s good to get people interested in the issues but more importantly, we need to get people informed on issues. Possess good knowledge on their policies and outcomes,” said Chris Henderson, a senior mechanical engineering major and co-president of Students for Liberty, a campus libertarian organization. “Go online, read the news, go to campus events… and don’t just go to one viewpoint,” said Henderson.

Jealous closed the event by rallying the crowd for their support.

“In this room, this is the future right here,” he said. “I say we ban together and make it come faster than [Hogan] even thinks is possible.”